Tag Archives: Tech

Steve Yegge on Emacs and Google

Posted on 2020-08-15 by jcs

It’s not Friday but Steve Yegge offers us some juicy red meat with a splendid rant on Google’s constant deprecation of their APIs. His main thesis is that backward compatibility is the hallmark of successful software systems that last for … Continue reading →

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PDFs and the Web

Posted on 2020-08-12 by jcs

The Nielsen Norman Group has an interesting article on PDFs and the Web and why they should never be read online. The article says that the group first reported this conclusion 20 years ago and nothing that’s happened in the … Continue reading →

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The Withering of Office Space

Posted on 2020-07-24 by jcs

As we’re learning, COVID-19 is causing profound changes in the way we live and causing us to question many long-held assumptions about how things work, indeed, how they must work. I’ve written about some of those things previously. Today’s example … Continue reading →

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Inserting Newlines in the Mac’s Messages App

Posted on 2020-07-22 by jcs

On the heels of yesterday’s semi-Mac-specific post, here’s one that’s entirely Mac specific. If you’re a Linux or Windows user, there won’t be anything very interesting for you in this offering. John Gruber over at Daring Fireball, provoked by a … Continue reading →

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Ransomware: Prevention & Recovery

Posted on 2020-07-13 by jcs

A couple of days ago, I mentioned Backblaze and their newsletter with an article about Tips for working remotely. That newsletter has a link to an older article that discusses how to prevent a ransomware attack and recover if you … Continue reading →

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The 500 Mile Email

Posted on 2020-07-10 by jcs

I vaguely remember writing about this before but I just saw a reference to it and it’s such a great story that it should be repeated every few years. Trey Harris tells a funny and instructive tale about how even … Continue reading →

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On Amazon and Walmart

Posted on 2020-06-23 by jcs

I like Walmart. They have a wide selection of products that are easy to find and have prices that are lower than many other stores such as the local supermarket. But I hate going there. The aisles are crowded usually … Continue reading →

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Red Meat Friday: Is Dark Mode a Good Idea?

Posted on 2020-06-19 by jcs

Those pesky Irreal minions are at it again. They can’t let a Friday go by without trying to bring up the light-mode/dark-mode debate. Alas, they’ve succeeded again. After the last time, I had a discussion with them but they were … Continue reading →

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Monitors

Posted on 2020-06-18 by jcs

Nikita Prokopov has a very informative post about computer monitors and how they influence our programming experiences. It’s a long post that begins with an excellent tutorial on how monitor resolution effects the display of characters and the various mitigating … Continue reading →

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Fixing Email

Posted on 2020-06-17 by jcs

From time to time I read a piece by some pundit proclaiming that email is dead; that it’s been supplanted by texting, Facebook, and other social media. Such pieces are, of course, ridiculous but it is true that the usual … Continue reading →

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